Over the years, we’ve met hundreds of entrepreneurs across an enormous range of businesses, everyone from the “I think I have an idea” people to the “been doing this for years” group and everything in between. And while each had their own path toward starting a business, their motives can often be summarized as some combination of the following: they have a great idea, they’re tired of working for someone else and they want to make money.
All of these are valid and, arguably, every entrepreneur should possess at least a smidgeon of each motive, but your particular intentions and your understanding of the barriers looming between you and your goal may very well influence your happiness – and even success — as an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship is hard
You already knew that. Everyone says so. You’re prepared for it. But this is a different kind of hard. This isn’t an “I pulled two all nighters and finished the essay” hard or a “my boss asked for the sun, moon and stars. I sweated it out and delivered everything she asked for and more” hard. This is something you throw yourself into, but soon look back on in triumph. This is an every day, long hours, highly unglamorous, boring, thankless kind of hard. Sure, there are bright spots: opening day, the first (and almost every) big sale, the occasional glowing press report. And hopefully, you’ll find time now and then to look back at what you’re accomplished and feel a quiet sense of pride. Then it’s back to work.
Making reality from a “great idea”
Having a great idea is a necessary starting point, but you also have to know how to build that idea into reality – and keep it going. You also have to be willing to see your idea change along the way. Not everyone may want a tuna fish-only diner; who knew? But a few tweaks to the menu and you’re good to go. Until the next revision is needed.
An idea alone may not keep you going through all this. No, you don’t have to love what you do, though it sure helps. But if you’re not truly curious about the business you’re in, always willing to learn more, eager to hear what customers and suppliers have to say, intrigued by what the competition is up to and excited to put it all into action, this may not be the path for you.
Be your own boss
If your goal in starting a business is avoid having someone telling you what to do, you may want to rethink it. It’s true, there will no longer be a person or people who can force you to do time-consuming. makework tasks just because they sign your paycheck. (And how you’ll miss that paycheck at times. Believe us.) Instead, you’re answerable to everyone. Customer’s got a complaint or a crazy request, the delivery guy’s truck broke, your new employee just informed you he can’t work on days with a “4” in the date, the sink is leaking – all your jobs.
Autonomy, creativity and the sense of adventure fuel most entrepreneurs, but they cut both ways. You can follow your gut, but there may be few people willing to point out the risks of that strategy. You can do whatever you think makes sense, but you also own the mistakes. And have we mentioned how lonely it can be?
On the other hand, we recently met with an entrepreneur who said, “I was the first one at work every day, the last one to leave, the one thinking up all the ideas, the one solving customers’ problems. I wanted to put that energy into my own business” If that’s your motivation, you might be onto something.
Making money
Of course you want to make money; if you don’t make money, you don’t have a business. And by “making money”, we mean whatever you want it to mean: cover your rent and food with a cushion for emergencies? Great. Buy a Lambo and run the business remotely from your villa in Italy? Also great. But the money aspect is typically slow, uncertain and insufficient motivation for the immense amount of work and worry you’ll put into it.
In all but a few wild examples, it takes months — years! — to make enough money to have peace of mind, let alone a fleet of polo ponies. We hope the big bucks will be there for you someday, but if there’s not something else driving you to show up with all your energy and enthusiasm day after day, even when the bank account looks grim, you may want to reconsider the security of that paycheck after all.
